The Art of Choice

I just had a big epiphany and would like to preface this with, "Yes, this may seem somewhat obvious"...Well, I was just thrown blindly into this Home Brewing. Brandon has always had a passion for beer and when I say that I don't just mean in the drinking sense. He truly enjoys identifying flavors, discovering new labels, and brew talk. Honestly, my preference is wine. If we could make our own wine, I would be thrilled.

Anyway, the idea of Home Brewing sounded like fun. A way to bond, experiment, and hopefully discover some delicious recipes. My realization this week was that ... I can make whatever I want! So, if there is a flavor, consistency, additive that I feel like having ... I can! Very exciting. I love hefeweizen brews that are full of flavor. When purchasing our latest materials, I got coriander, lemon peel, and orange.

Completely customized. The beauty of choice makes me a brew fan.

Hoppy Bottling Day!

Another fantastic surprise for our first batch.

We took a trip to the Home Brew Mart, our local supply shop, to procure some bottles and a few other small accessories for bottling. Nicole had decided that she was interested in getting the supplies for our next brew - a hefeweizen. She sought out the help of one of the store employees and they started talking about the brewing process. And in the course of the conversation and Nicole's many, many, many questions -- we found out that in our current batch, we were NOT supposed to have left the hops in the fermenter lo these two weeks.

The guy kind of looked at us, shook his head, and said "Well, we'll see how it turns out." He then explained a myriad of options to us, regarding how the beer could turn out. It could be rank, or bitter, or hoppy or just fine. There was only one way to find out -- go home and taste it.

We tapped our bucket, and started a line out.

It looked like beer! This was a great moment for both of us -- that strange bucket of who-knows-what had been sitting in our office for two weeks, and we had no idea what it looked like. To see it coming out and looking (and smelling!) like beer was a real thrill for us.

But how did it taste....?

It tasted great! Very hoppy, to be sure, but a nice hoppy.

Nicole liked it too! "That's pretty damn good!" is what she actually said. And she says she never curses.

Then it was time to bottle!

The Heat is On...

So, a couple of things:

First of all, apparently we brewed in the wrong bucket! According to the reading I've been doing, the bucket we used is called a "bottling bucket" -- one with a spigot. I figured that we would, of course, be USING the one with the spigot to both brew AND bottle from.

But, according to the BILLIONS of homebrewing forums out there, bottling is a "two-bucket" endeavor. So, come bottling day, we will now have to:

1) Siphon the beer from bottling bucket to fermenting bucket
2) Clean and sterilize bottling bucket
3) Re-siphon beer BACK to bottling bucket
4) Bottle from bottling bucket.

Live and learn?

Secondly -- more knowledge gleaned from the homebrew forums is making me a little concerned about temperature. As much as I tried to wait until the temperature cooled in the wort to pitch the yeast (almost two hours!) I read that most people try not to pitch until the wort has cooled to about 70 degrees or cooler. I probably pitched around 85. And it's been very warm here in lovely San Diego lately.

Turns out there's a reason most homebrewers live in places like Minnesota.

Anyway, the good news is that neither of these factors will "ruin" the beer -- they're just not optimal conditions. The beer may at first have produced some extra esthers which could give it a "banana-like" flavor...not something you shoot for with a pale ale, but oh well. Bananas are good for you, right?

One week 'til bottling day!

-- Brandon

51 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

My biggest question lately has been, "So, how MANY bottle of beer will this batch make?" I must admit that Brandon and I used some interesting math. Our dilemma was not with the malt extract, the hops, the water...but with the giant bucket. After boiling our ingredients and cooling the wort, we were challenged with filling the bucket to 5 gallons. The unlabeled, unmeasurable, giant bucket!

When we were trying to figure out the problem, my memory banked streamed with years and years of formulas and solutions. Difficult to pinpoint which one to use, so I brought out the most trustworthy resource we owned...a ruler. Now, I know this sounds archaic, obsolete, and all too simple.

I figured we have this giant unmeasurable bucket that needs to be divided into parts. The bucket is 6 gallons and so we could figure it had 6 equal parts. For our purposes, we merely needed 5 of those parts. I measure the length of the bucket and divided that total by 6. Then, I marked the bucket at 5 parts.

We filled our bucket with pride! Hoping that we yield 51 bottles of beautifully saturated booze, instead of 99 watery ones. Cross your fingers!

Our First Brew!

Brandon and I are so excited to share how we are getting our home brew started!

Here's how it all started...Brandon went to Ballast Point to get supplies. I felt a comfortable mix of delight and surprise. Then, I immediately started thinking of names for us...The Brewsome Couple, Lady and the Brew, the Brewtastic Duo...so many possibilities. I knew this name could stick with us forever...

I asked Brandon, "What do you want people to think of when they taste our beer?" He said, "Elegance, creativity, man's endless struggle to understand man, the usual." And I said, "What about women!" Anyway, we came to consensus with the fact that we love our home and neighborhood. We are between University Heights and Normal Heights...cleverly names Between Heights. Perfect!

We are Between Heights Brew.

We hope to share our experience with home brewing, trials and tribulations.

And all that jazz. Enjoy!

Nicole and Brandon